Paez targets 2nd win at Pueblo de Oro

Nicolas Paez heads to the ICTSI Pueblo de Oro Championship bristling with confidence coming off a breakthrough victory over the weekend, ready to pounce on the very same cast he beat at Del Monte and earn another title shot in the P3 million event in Cagayan de Oro.

But the Venezuelan-American shotmaker will be hard-pressed to duplicate his feat and will be as much tested as the rest of the field at the Robert Trent Jones II-designed Pueblo de Oro layout that features daunting natural ravines and sleek, unpredictable putting surface.

After playing consistently to clinch his maiden Philippine Golf Tour victory, emerging the only player to complete a run of under par scores at the mountaintop layout, Paez would need to raise the level of his game at Pueblo in anticipation of his rivals’ charge, including the Korean duo of Lee Song and Kim Joo Hyung and local aces James Ryan Lam, Tony Lascuña, Jay Bayron, Jobim Carlos, Elmer Salvador and Jerson Balasabas, among others.

Song and Kim, for one, are raring to atone for their final round miscues at Del Monte with the former failing to force a playoff with a last-hole bogey and the latter blowing an early cushion with a disastrous triple-bogey on the ninth.